


Home

by Big_Spicy_Garlean_Fucker



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Pregnancy, Lazy Mornings, Love, M/M, Married Life, May/December Relationship, Oneshot, Referenced Past Trauma, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:40:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25301002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Big_Spicy_Garlean_Fucker/pseuds/Big_Spicy_Garlean_Fucker
Summary: Lucius and Varis don't dream at night - for when they awake in the mornings, they find heaven within each other's arms.Submitted for a contest in which the theme was 'Home, and what it means to your characters'.Now with companion art!
Relationships: Varis zos Galvus/Original Male Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything for months but I did my best.
> 
> Part of LuciVaris Canon!

Lucius had never really understood the concept of  _ home _ . He knew the white marble corridors of his family’s estate, the cold steel walls of a Castrum. The footfalls of servants and guards and just where to hide when a stranger approached. What time he could eat and bathe and sleep, all organized like clockwork. For Lucius, home had always been a place to live and nothing more. Or so he once thought.

He’s not exactly in the habit of deep introspection these days, spending more time in mindless bliss nestled within his Radiance’s arms. They’ve been married for three years now, the war with Eorzea is long since over and Lucius hasn’t worried about his future since. Ever since Varis took him on as Advisor he’s had stable work, a place to stay and guidance every day of his carefully sculpted life. There wasn’t much hope for Lucius in the Militum after the Resonance project, kicking him from the barracks he knew into a nightmare of needles and restraints. Varis provided fairly simple desk work Lucius could sit down and focus on, and there was no more mention of him being forged into a living weapon for the glory of the Empire. It took time for Lucius to get used to being a person. These days, he doesn’t think much about his past. Varis is both his present and future, moreso now that they have children on the way. Lucius lays atop his husband’s chest awash in a living dream, admiring the gold-haloed grandeur of his half-risen Emperor. Varis’s eyes are just beginning to squint open, his worn features already coming together in their trademark scowl. Lucius adores how angelic his Radiance looks when he sleeps, the worries smoothed from his face by the careful balancing of his aethers. It happens automatically at night, when they’re cuddled up close together – a field of protection surrounds them both, so that neither need be plagued by terrors of their past. Varis no longer recalls his first partner’s lifeless stare and the sound of Zenos’s shrill screaming. The eyeless Medicii no longer torment Lucius’s dreams. For the first time in years (decades for Varis) night brings rest, safety and peace. Neither of them really dream any more. They have no need to.

Varis squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, unsticking his lashes from where sleep yet glues them together. Scrunches up his nose, purses his lips. It’s an endearing sight Lucius looks forward to every morning, and he can’t help but mirror the pouty expression back at his beloved. It isn’t long before two slivers of gold peek out from beneath dark, heavy lids and Varis’s gaze comes into focus. Almost immediately, his face relaxes. Lucius wriggles up to nuzzle at his chin, hefting his upper body just high enough to press their foreheads together. It’s their little ritual to start the day, third eye against third eye, brow to brow, scar to scar. The world narrows to just the two of them, letting Varis know that he is no longer alone, and Lucius that he is safe. Reaffirming for both of them that they are wanted and loved, the two things they have struggled with since the day they were born. Lucius’s parents wanted a dress-up doll to carry on the name of House Batiatus. Varis’s parents were just obeying their Emperor’s orders.

“There’s my golden sun.” Lucius whispers, lovingly tracing the lines of Varis’s ageworn features down the sides of his face. “Is it going to be warm today?”

“We’ll see about that…” Varis’s lips curve up at the corners ever so slightly, lifting his jowls. “Depends on how far my light wishes to reach.” He brushes Lucius’s nose with his own, sharp and pointed yet so well fitted to nuzzling. Lucius nips it between his lips, unable to keep from grinning. He loves that he has purpose now, a place to belong and a duty to serve, and a man who will love him even on his days off.

“Wherever you like.” The brush of thick fingers along his jaw sends a fullbodied shiver all the way down to his toes, which curl in the sheets when Varis cards a hand through his hair. Varis touches him as naturally as breathing, no longer the stilted, awkward superior overly concerned with professional formalities. At any given moment he could set a hand on his husband’s shoulder or grope a nice handful of his ass, no matter where they are or who they’re with. These days, they’re mostly with each other and the occasional servant or soldier. After their absolutely magnificent wedding, there isn’t a single soul in Garlemald unaware of Lucius and Varis’s union. The state of House Galvus on the whole - how much  _ lighter _ it feels, less a collection of posturing purebloods and more a close-knit family with the Empire’s best interests in mind. It is not just the native Garleans Varis stands for, now. Every single citizen of the Empire has a place to call home, and enough reforms have been made to enact lasting, positive change on the commoner’s quality of life. One only hears talk of ‘savages’ in the upper echelons of Garlean society, among the Optimates who have been holding less seats in the Senate with every passing year. While the ranks in society yet remain, there are unions thriving without threat of military suppression, slaves turned servants with rights, wages and more. Garlemald has never known such prosperity, and in saving the resources that would have been used to make war, the whole nation flourishes.

As for Lucius and Varis - they have not only secured fair living conditions for all their people, but a wonderful way of life for themselves. Now, as Varis rises from bed to start the day, he cradles Lucius in his arms and holds him close to his chest. That is where home lies for them both – within eachother.

They’re going to need a bigger palace soon enough.


End file.
